Livvy’s 2Cents – The Rant of the Thoroughly Disillusioned…..

Call it disillusioned, call it a higher consciousness, but this is exactly how i am feeling this morning.

I take it that you have it too every once in a while – you know, that nagging feeling that things are just not right with the world. I’m not talking about the obvious things like world poverty, hunger and wars although these are all very legitimate issues.

I’m talking about how cold, superficial and downright illiterate the world in general has become. We’re swimming in so much consumerism that even when we dip our heads out of the brands and designer labels for one moment and see the world as it is, it’s only a matter of seconds before the next wave crashes in on us and we’re forced to swallow the next great gadget to have, the next great movie to watch, the next big trend to follow – anything to stop us paying too close attention to what world governments are doing, anything to stop us thinking long enough to realise that our freedoms are slowly being eroded by those we put our trust in to act in our interests.

Don’t get me wrong, a new Xbox – hell yeah; Quantum of Solace – I was one of the many who couldn’t wait to watch it; plus I’d love to pay a ridiculous sum for a pair of Christian Louboutin’s that I’d probably wear once and take off after five minutes because I would otherwise risk twisting an ankle. I like stuff just like the next person and I can party like the best of them. What bothers me is that among other things, the world has very rapidly gone berserk over material things. People can’t get enough of them. Everywhere you look, you’re constantly subliminally drilled to go out and buy something that you don’t really need. Shop until you drop. Party until you drop. Whatever you do, DON’T sit down and read the news…but if by chance you tend to be one of those nosy ones, then just to make sure, there are global media conglomerates waiting in position to give you the version of the news that they want you to read and they surround it with as much advertising as possible. So the world banks are multilaterally being bailed out by and in a lot of cases giving the state part or complete ownership , meaning that your money is technically now owned by your government and in the case of a “national emergency” they could do whatever they wanted with it – oh wait, there’s a special limited edition sale on iPhones! Screw the government, they’ll sort it out. Right now I gotta get me one of those babies! Meanwhile…..you are rocking Versace Versace Versace and your mother is hungry. Oops….pardon me, ive been listening to too much Olamide, back to the matter.

Seriously, am I the only one who’s a little bit disturbed by this stuff? Sometimes I think I am but I bet you that the couple that they showed standing in front of the closed doors of a bank, failingly trying to get their savings back with the argument that it’s their money and they want it back, would beg to differ. But that’s just one couple’s story, right? The government would never do that to its people, much less get away with it, right? Democracy would never allow that to happen, right? What about in a totalitarian country? Our very own Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe, Congo Brazaville under Denis Sassou Nguesso, Uganda under Yoweri Museveni, and Rwanda under Paul Kagame. What would happen in a group of totalitarian states where there’s a single currency and its distribution is regulated by banks who sold out to these states by purposely creating a problem that they could solve? I admit, I’m a conspiracy theorist so maybe I’m getting a bit carried away here…there’s no such entity with a single major currency in existence today, nor is there a major move being made to centralize world economy and politics within this non-existent entity so in all likelihood I could be insane…at least Monsieur Sarkozy would say I am.

The world sees these things happening and we just kind of take note of this information and save it just until we can find the remote control and flip to Californication and any unpleasant news from the “land of the real” that we were watching before is deleted from our memory.

We choose escapism. No one wants to see people dying, no one wants to see skeletal frames on TV unless it’s on [your country here]’s Next Top Model. All we care about is hearing that our governments will bomb the bad guys and that they have everything under control so we can stick our heads back in the sand now. We don’t need to know the rest, we don’t want to ask the questions…and they’re more than ok with this system that they worked so hard to infuse into our society because they figured out ages ago that if you throw a frog into a pan of boiling water it’ll immediately jump out but if you place the frog in a pan of cold water and gradually turn up the heat, you can cook the frog from the inside without it realising it.

It’s because of our complacency that they have managed to turn our society into a well-oiled, self perpetuating machine where all the good ‘sheeple’ go to work and slave away their little lives and in the evenings they’re bombarded with a wide range of entertainment until they go into sugar shock like kiddies in a candy store – with so much candy, which kiddie wants to sit down and do homework? Then on the weekends, there’s all sorts of delectable little treats waiting for you – cool parties with the same music medleys playing every weekend in the same sequence as the same DJs played them ten years ago but still, hey, money well spent, great night out on the town! We live on sweet nothings and some of us are perfectly happy being stupid…as long as we look good, stay forever young, have money to burn and are fawned over by adoring fans and loving admirers, life’s good. Our protectors will look after the rest. For us, it’s all about looking good in whatever we do. Life is all about self – even when it comes to helping others.

Sure, on some level the 500,000 shilling donation will help those kids, that organisation, that victim but how much more does it help us? Philanthropy is now an art. Help, yes, but anonymously tip off the paparazzi first and make sure you’re in your best khaki outfit and boots to get the look down pat. Society has grown cold. What a sad statement of our times. We love to talk of them…they never smile at us, they never say hello to us, they never…when do we do it to them? Even if they don’t smile back? I think this is one of the things that bothers me most about the world; the lack of compassion for others. It comes back to us, our self-obsessions, our inferiority complexes…Why should I smile if they don’t, I’ll look like an idiot; what will I get out of it? Why should I care? Why, why, why…Why all the damn whys? Can’t it be simply because you want to do something selfless? Can’t it be simply because you want to put a smile on someone else’s face and make them feel good about something? Can’t it be simply because a simple gesture such as a smile or a hug reminds us of our humanity and connects us with one another? It’s a shame that compassion has been eroded from our lives to the point where conventions have to be organised for people to line up to hug a complete stranger in order to feel something again.

Don’t lie to yourself. How many of you for example, pay attention to any status updates where someone, who isn’t in your immediate circle of friends, writes that they’re doing crap or that they have some problem? How many of you ever reach out and respond? How many of you only ever reach out to someone when they write something funny or they’re otherwise doing well? How many of you ever stop in the street to help someone who’s maybe dropped something (common sense applies here, you don’t stop for strangers in some dark back alley)? It’s not a judgement and it’s not anybody’s obligation to play savior or psychologist to a stranger…still, it should make us think.

Olivia (livvy)Kitawa, is a creative writer, born and bred in Nairobi,Kenya, (where I felt I never quite fit in). Single mother, daughter,sister,friend and care giver. Aquarius, lives by the rules (most of the time). Outgoing, fun loving, amazing personality, people's person,(when people are nice that is...half the time people irritate me when they are being annoying.) People laugh at my jokes and say am silly, so I guess that makes me funny. Critical thinker(I dissect everything!!), always questioning why and how we exist, looking for those answers still. If you think you have the answers please share. A free spirit that loves to read and travel and meet new people, absorb different cultures.